One Piece: Pirate Warriors 2 – Review (PS3)
In Japan, One Piece is one of the biggest selling Anime and Manga series ever. Critically acclaimed, it has spawned many video games, most of which never reach our shores. But how does Pirate Warriors 2 translate for a western audience?
I have a confession to make. I know very little about pirates. The same should also be said for anime, manga and the Dynasty Warriors franchise and all of the associated spin-offs and ‘clones’.
So it would come as no surprise that it took until I was four hours into the campaign of Pirate Warriors 2 before I actually realised it was a game that accompanied a very well established manga and anime series. The words ‘well established’ don’t do the popularity of this series justice; some volumes of One Piece currently hold the records for fastest and best-selling books in Japanese history. With this in mind, suddenly it made more sense, although not a whole lot more. The game’s story is confusing on its own, as characters come and go with little explanation of their methods, motivations or which side they are actually fighting for. One Piece: Pirate Warriors 2 is very much a game meant for fans of the series, and unfortunately it does little to garner genuine interest from newcomers.
At least at face value it appears to stick closely to its source material. The original voice cast reprise their roles, with English subtitles explaining the Japanese dialogue. Unfortunately, this makes plot very difficult to follow at times as fending off hordes of enemies, keeping track of the enemy commanders and reading subtitles isn’t the easiest task. Alongside the original voice actors, the game’s art style also appears loyal to the manga. Pirate Warriors 2 does carry some of its kooky and bizarre charm; not many games have you fighting as, or against, a cyborg in a Hawaiian shirt and swim trunks combo, firing off ‘hyper beams’ and summoning giant robot doctors. The anime tropes are out in force here, from cute anthropomorphic deer characters, to massive bouncing double D tits and one eyed samurai – to the uninitiated it feels like a “greatest hits” of stereotypical anime characters.
The game plays like a watered down and relatively simplified version of Dynasty Warriors. You pick a character before a battle, equipping skills and stat boosting coins, before going on to fight large numbers of enemies on the battlefield. Each ‘level’ has very similar objectives; capture territories, defeat bosses and sub-bosses and protect your allies. And that’s it really. Each characters selection of moves, at least prior to levelling up, feels very limited. Even as you begin to unlock more combos, it is hard not to become board of the repetitive nature of the combat. I was also struck by the easiness of the battles. Spamming the same collection of moves would defeat the vast majority of expendable grunts and foot soldiers. Leader and Boss characters might require slightly better timing and some dodging of their attacks, but this wasn’t enough to break the sheer monotony of the core combat. The most common fail state I experienced was an ally being killed because I simply didn’t realise they were in trouble; this can be attributed to their subtitled calls for help being easy to miss and a lack of significant visual cue or feedback on screen.
The combat has added depth with the option to equip different attributes and adjust stats with specially collected coins, but it all feels superfluous and doesn’t affect how shallow a gameplay experience it all is. Alongside your chosen player character, you also pick a ‘support’ character who can be called in to inflict extra damage when the special meter is full, however in spite of the large selection of playable characters it still does little to detract from the repetitive nature of every battle.
Verdict: Despite the crazy and bizarre charms of the anime tropes, I found the game dull due to repetition. Ultimately, with a lacklustre narrative and no interest in the original source material I found myself very bored. The only reason I don’t rate the game lower is because there is an audience for this game that would have received it a lot better than I have.
Pros:
– Visually and stylistically it feels very much like a manga
– Authentic – original Japanese voice actors and some very odd wording; as if something is lost in translation
– Plays like a Dynasty Warriors clone, if you enjoy the pseudo-strategic RPG/Beat-em-up hybrid you might find something to sink your teeth into here
Cons:
– Repetitive to the point of frustration and boredom
– Gameplay is simplistic
– Escorting and saving incompetent AI is not fun
– If you have a distaste for anime, steer well clear of this
– If interested in this genre, there are games that play far better